Notes / Commercial Description:
Jim Moorehouse, Nate Albrecht and Brad Zeller, three pals planning to open a Chicago brewpub under the moniker of Aleman, won first place at last year's Iron Brew homebrewing competition in the Windy City (judged by none other than Greg Koch, Jason Ebel of Two Brothers Brewing, and celebrated Chicago brewer, designer and author Randy Mosher). Their style-bending IPA artfully married the assertive tropical bite of Citra hops with amazing coffee flavor and aromatics to create something truly unique and exceptional.

Serendipitously, Two Brothers recently kicked off a new adventure roasting their own coffee beans, and provided just-in-time freshly roasted java for the brew. The result is an innovative IPA that's well balanced and intensely flavored thanks to the felicitous blend of hops and fresh roasted coffee.

T: coffee and hops. At first I didn't know how well the coffee would blend with the resin and citrus, but they work together extremely well. Flavors are a bit disjunct, coffee upfront with a hoppy finish... I'm a fan.

M: light to medium bodied. Warms the throat on its way down but refreshing simultaneously. Nothing really standing out in the mouthfeel department, but it's solid.

O: I would drink this for breakfast if I had the stomach. A great in your face brew that doesn't hold much back. Absolutely worth picking up if your a fan of IPAs and are looking for something with a twist.

More User Reviews:

A: Clear orangy brown with a light head. A bit darker than I thought it was going to pour.

S: Smells like I thought it would. Brown sugar with hits of coffee wrapped up in the classic IPA hoppy smell.

T: Unbelievably well done. Tastes like your normal Stone IPA. Super hoppy. As the beer passes, you begin getting the coffee. I did not think this combo would work out well, but damn these guys nailed it. It wasn't that artificial coffee taste that people who don't drink coffee imagine coffee to taste like, but it was legitimate aroma and tast of a solid cup of joe. I got the majority of the taste on the exhale. It was awesome.

My computer died half way through my previous review, so this one will be abridged. Great coppery amber color. Aroma is fairly floral and hoppy, but I mostly get the coffee, this is a good thing. The taste is wonderful, a bit under hopped, but I love the use of malt, and it couples really well with the coffee. The mouthfeel is a not like a typical IPA, a touch less carbonation. Anywho, this beer is delightfully surprising.

Interesting IPA variation. Not sure how many coffee IPAs I've had the pleasure of trying, if any. Notes of more mellow coffee, trying to mesh with the underlying hoppyness and malts. Not sure if this one gets to the level of actually "meshing". Things sort of all over the place.

Pours a copper penny brown in color. Brilliant clarity. Moderate to light head retention. The nose is intently coffee. Auberges just a bit of hops. The mouthfeel is substantial, but not overwhelming. This is a coffee dominated beer with some serious hop flavoring. I'msure there is some hop flavoring, but this is definitely a hop forward beer.

The flavor, again, is a combination of citrus fruits, bitterness, and roasted coffee beans. It's a strange combination. Some sips seems more hop-forward, while others seem dramatically coffee dominant. Interesting, though the combination isn't a very thirst quenching one. I'd knock this for drinkability, whatever that means.

Medium bodied with moderate-high carbonation.

The idea or theory behind this beer is fully realized. Whether it's actually all that good or drinkable is for the individual drink to discover on their own. I wouldn't take down a whole bottle of this.

A nice golden color, thin 1/3" head, offwhite, doesn't have much retention or lacing. Anytime you hear coffee I think I'm about to get into something brown or black, but no. Aroma was amazing coffee. Top notch stuff, smooth, yet pungent, deep, rich. Hops were a little behind the coffee in the aroma.

Somehow, the taste, is able to capture the coffee flavors and hit you with the Stone hop assault at the same time. What I found to be utterly amazing, is the mouthfeel here, how you can have lots of hops, lots of coffee, but really the beer comes off as more of a flavor experience than a bitter experience. You still get pine from the hops and plenty of coffee, without any astringency going on.

Hmmm, interesting idea. I was not sure how well coffee and intense hops would mix, and after trying this mix I'm still not sure. As expected given the involvement of Stone, there was no reduction in the strong hop aromatics and flavor, and I had the distinct impression that the IPA 'base' was excellent. I had two reservations about the coffee contribution, however. First, the coffee component smelled, and to a lesser extent, tasted too much like used coffee grinds, despite the use of "fresh roasted coffee". Second, and perhaps due to the particular hop and bean mix, the coffee did not blend with the other flavors or aromas as well as it does in many porters and stouts.